State police have filed arson charges against a Chambersburg man who is accused of setting his girlfriend’s mobile home on fire in a scheme to obtain insurance money, according to charging documents.

David Adkins, 45, is also accused of arranging for another person to set fire to two vehicles that belonged to a Shippensburg Township man who had a relationship with his girlfriend, police said.

Police started their investigation on March 16 of this year after receiving a report of a vehicle being vandalized in Shippensburg Township. They arrived at the Shippensburg Mobile Estates to find two cars that smelled strongly of gasoline.

Police discovered that someone had attempted to create a “Molotov cocktail” in an attempt to burn a Toyota 4runner and Chevy Silverado. Police found a bottle containing a cloth and gasoline under the Silverado, but it was never lit, according to court records.

When police asked the man who owned the cars if there was anyone who had a motive to damage his property, he said he had been seeing a woman who lived down the street. He told police that woman had recently gotten back together with Adkins, her boyfriend, and told him that she was “with” another man.

Around 5:59 a.m. the next morning, the same woman’s mobile home was found by firefighters engulfed in flames.

Fire investigators and a fire accelerant-detecting K-9 later discovered an accelerant in four different locations in the mobile home, including a bedroom. Police determined the fire had been set intentionally.

A witness told police she saw Adkins and another person in the area of the mobile home on the morning of the fire, police said.

Police also obtained a search warrant for the phones belonging to Adkins and his girlfriend that contained text messages showing the fire was set intentionally in an effort to claim insurance money, charging documents state.

A geographical trace of Adkins cell phone by the state’s Criminal Intelligence Center also showed that he was in the area of the mobile home when the fire was set, police said.

Additionally, Adkin’s girlfriend told police she had “provoked” Adkins on the morning of the fire in a series of text messages. Police also found the woman after the fire with purple and black marks on her neck, which she told another woman Adkins had caused when he beat her up.

Adkins was arraigned Tuesday on the arson charges. On Monday, a jury found Adkins not guilty in an unrelated criminal case in which he was accused of illegally possessing marijuana, Ritalin, Suboxone, Xanax and Valium, according to court records.

It was not immediately clear Wednesday whether another person was facing charges in the arson case for setting up the “Molotov cocktail” around the two vehicles.

Thirteen charges were filed against Adkins in the arson case. They include arson/causing danger of death or bodily injury, arson/intentionally destroying a building, criminal mischief, reckless burning or exploding and risking a catastrophe.

Adkins remains in custody in Cumberland County Prison and his bail was set at $250,000. He has a preliminary hearing scheduled for Monday in Cumberland County Court before Magisterial District Judge H. Anthony Adams.

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